Mind the Gaps DietOur site aims to give support/information for those on or considering the GAPS diet, or wishing to improve their health through a traditional diet. All the recipes are:Grain-free and Refined sugar freeStraight forward English Food!Watch your health bloom as your diet improves!

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I'm quite excited. I heard about this new book last week and must admit to immediately having to buy it. You can get a hard copy or a kindle version.

The author, Jaclyn Harwell did the GAPS diet with her family a while back, but they now eat grain-free a lot of the time by choice. She wanted to recreate traditional seasonal food for her family so they didn't feel left out. Well, she has done a wonderful job. Although we don't participate in the end of year festivities, we do often have to attend family get togethers which involve eating seasonal food, and I was wondering how we would cope on the GAPS diet this year. Wonder no more.... here is a lovely collection of recipes/ideas to use/adapt. I can see that some would suit well for our purposes - delicious sweets and puddings as well as filling healthy savouries and side-dishes, suitable for taking to parties if need be.

I thought you might to know about them too..... I'm not receiving commission for advertising this, just wanting to notify you of a good product.

Please excuse a departure from my normal subject - food. This is an area very much GAPS related. Please see the chapter on the education of the autistic child in the GAPS handbook. Dr. Natasha Campbell Mc-Bride argues the case for a structured approach to the training of the autistic child to enable learning to take place. It is very difficult to teach any child who is not compliant. I argue that we all need a structured, well thought out approach to training all of our children, if we truly have their good at heart.

Being a teacher, I have a natural interest in children. Being a parent I have a great interest in my own children. Neither prepared me for the day my first child said 'No' when asked to do/not to do something.
I had no thought through strategy and my reaction was a knee-jerk reaction. In other words, I did as came naturally without thought. It was probably the method I had learned from my own parents dealings with my own behaviour when I was young.To be honest, although I knew the day would come, it was still a bit of a shock, that my darling bundle of joy had dissolved into a tempestuous fury over a simple request!

I believe we live in a fallen world and that all of us are born sinners. Now I know that is not a popular line of thought. You may not agree with the Bible. Over the years I have studied many behaviour/child psychology theories in pursuit of my training and practice as a teacher. Many start from the basis that the child is born good and that it is their upbringing/external factors that cause a child to misbehave. Some theories try to down play misbehaviour as a parent's problem - that is, the parent hasn't yet learnt to relate to the child in a right manner, whatever the theorist perceives to be right. All of these theories, although having an element of truth in them, fail. You can try and put them into practice, but they don't work. My reason is that they go against what our Creator God has said in the Bible. They refuse to admit that we are born sinners. The Bible tells us that the desire to rebel is in each of us. The innocent young baby is not incapable of doing wrong and soon they will need training to do that which is right. Many say you don't need to teach a child how to do wrong, only how to do right. We know that to be true. We also know that many social problems do impact children's behaviour as well, but that should not detract us from the basic premise. Children are not born good, only harmed from outside. They are born sinful. At some point, that capability will become manifest and the parent's will have to make decisions as to how they lovingly respond to their child in order to train them in the way in which they should go.

This is the bit we struggle with. First we don't have clear goals as to what to train them towards. Secondly we don't have any pre-planned strategies. Many resort to anger and irritation with the child. Many act out of embarrassment. I see many parents who want to train their child aright, but when the child doesn't comply with their instruction, weakly back off not knowing how to respond and the child merrily continues doing what it now knows (from the parent's initial reaction) to be disproved of. Others hope that by ignoring their child's behaviour it will somehow come out alright in the end. Others seek to accommodate their child's awkwardness's (especially autistic parents) as they are genuinely unsure how much the child can help and how much is out of their control. Unfortunately, all of these approaches reinforce the behaviour we don't wish to see. Many so called popular 'consequence's' actually lead to more 'consequences' having to be set as trying to get the child to comply with the consequences soon masks the initial offence. I think of the day I sat my youngster on the 'naughty step' to think about how he could reform his behaviour. Of course, he immediately got up. So I was then coping with the initial offence added to the secondary offence. I promptly gave up that strategy! No wonder parents are so confused. As the children grow older, it is no wonder they feel insecure as they are left prey to their own sinful inclinations with no one to set limits, as sinful behaviour left unchecked ultimately destroys the person.
Add to this cocktail the breakdown in family life and the poor diet of many living on processed junk food, is it any wonder that there is an alarming rise in self-harming and mental problems. Oh how badly we are letting our youngsters down by not training them. We need to take this matter seriously.

The times in which we live make parenting very difficult. Pressure from 'outside' the family (media etc.) and 'good' advice from so called 'child experts' makes us feel inadequate. Parents are led to believe that handing their children over to others to care for them is the answer, so undermining their own sense of responsibility to train their children. So when the children do come back into the family home, parents are often at a loss to know how to handle their child's behaviour or how to train them aright. I hear many parents dreading school holidays and being so relieved when they are over and they can hand the child back to the 'carers' for the most part of the day. Consequently, wrap around child care is more and more the norm. Take them in at 8am, go to work all day and pick them up at 6pm and drop them into bed. Problem solved, minimal contact with the children. Unfortunately this is no solution, it is only causing our precious youngsters more and more problems. Behaviour problems in school soar, and the number of young folk with mental illnesses is sky high, so high that the mental health system is overloaded and can't help all those that need it. Add to this the number of children with learning problems affecting their behaviour - ADD, ADHD, Autism, dyspraxia etc.

So what is the solution? First we need to recognise that it is the parent's (God given) responsibility to train their children. No one else's. Parents alone can give training in the context of a loving home environment, where the child is free to find out what is right and wrong and still belong and be loved. The 'carer's' are impersonal and actually don't have much impact long term on the children's behaviour. The child is passed on to another teacher, another school, each with their own set of ideologies and the child has no consistent framework in which to grow into a beautiful, well rounded character - despite all the ads for the private schools promising such things.

Secondly, each family needs to work out their goals for their children. I don't mean that 'x' is to become a nurse and 'y' a doctor. No, we need to be sure of what could be termed 'morals', the code of behaviour, manners etc... How do we want our children to behave in public? How should they respond to visitors to our homes? How should they eat? How do we want them to talk to each other/us as parents? How should they respond if they don't agree with what we have asked? Is pouting and back talk permitted? How should they get along with others? Questions such as these and many others. For us personally, that means teaching and modelling to our children God's standards for their behaviour; old fashioned principles like, no lying, respecting parents and others in authority, treating others as they would like to be treated themselves etc... we cannot make our children believe the message of the Bible, but none-the-less they are in our eyes the best rules for living given to us by the One who made us and therefore knows us best. It also means that when they are old enough to ask 'Why?' it's not us against them. We have a higher authority. Something we badly lack these days.

Having worked these things out, we need a plan of action as in most of these areas, for most children, it will take years of daily little by little training, with many set-backs along the way, needing much love and patience. Parents will have to constantly look to their goals to avoid becoming despondent. They will frequently feel they are failing! This is part of the job! Parents will frequently get 'it' wrong and have to review their strategies. No one ever said parenting was easy.
Having clear expectations and clear strategies means you don't train in a knee jerk way. You step in to train before you become angry/irritated. You are always watchful of the behaviour you are modelling and your responsibility to help mould this young life into a mentally/socially healthy adult.

When I first started out, I was helped tremendously by one little rule I learnt: Always expect the child to obey first time, quickly and joyfully to any given task. Any less was seen as an actionable situation.
To that point I had only trained for obedience, but the addition of attitude changed things. They were to be happy to do as I'd asked and therefore they were to have a good attitude - no sulking, pouting, whining, back-chat (as they got older), tutting or any other body language that suggested they didn't want to comply; no delaying tactics.
By doing these things you are not left feeling helpless when you see behaviour you don't desire in your child, or if you are, then you review your strategies. You are pro-active in the training, not being led along by the child.

Some children are more compliant than others. Some parents may gloat as they have had an easy child and they think their parenting skills are wonderful, but be careful of judging as all children are different and some parents may well be struggling with difficulties that would challenge you too if you had them.

One other tip I learnt was to talk to my children about their behaviour in differing situations. For example, if we were going to somebody else's house, I would talk to them about how I expected them to behave, to be polite, shake hands, give eye-contact. Say 'Thank you' as they left, to share toys without arguing. I could talk them through any potential problems. Or, if children were coming to our house, I would make sure they knew which areas of the house were permissible to play in and which not, which toys, etc... and go over the family ground rules. If we went round a supermarket, then I set the standards: no asking for foods, they were to help put food in bags at the checkout. It certainly helped as I was then no longer watching embarrassed and irritated while they ran round the aisles uncontrollably. I was watching to see if they did as I had instructed and once home we debriefed as to how well they had done and what needed improving.
It made them feel grow-up as they were learning to be adults. It gave them a sense of responsibility, which has not left them. Sometimes we would role-play visitors arriving, or meeting people and how to greet them, or how to cope when visiting children did something not allowed.

We dare not neglect to think these things. We are all training our children in one way or another all the time, but lets not leave it to chance that they will naturally 'get it right' or somehow magically pick up the cues from us. Some might, but most will need dedicated training - time and patience, but above all LOVE.
It's never too late to start, though you will have a harder job the older the child. Let them know the change in approach and then clearly enforce it. Younger ones respond quicker and often they help the older ones to see that there is a new regime. Ultimately, they will be happier and the home more peaceful. As Dr. Natasha McBride says, children with autism are not exempt from needing training, but rather need more training to help them catch up.

'Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.'Proverbs 22:6

Don't you just love a trip to the dentist!
Well, maybe if you are on GAPS you might not want to tell him/her you are fluoride free. We did and she gave our teeth such a deep clean we came away sore. Her theory being of course, that bacteria in our mouths would attack the enamel and we would have a mouth full of cavities. So she was doing her best to help us! She genuinely is a good dentist and we travel for an hour to get to her.
When we went last month we decided not to remind her. She had forgotten and didn't remember until poor Husband went in - he got the clean, but the rest of us didn't! What did she find...nothing! The Sons teeth were in good shape, she cleaned mine very minimally compared to even before we started GAPS. So obviously going fluoride free hadn't had the negative result she had anticipated. I'm not sure I would want to be fluoride free if I wasn't eating GAPS but as the restricted foods are all very tooth friendly it isn't a problem. In fact I never realised that it was actually possible to heal cavities through diet alone. We are beginning to see that our diet has impacted our tooth health and that maybe 'they' are right. Our diet is strengthening our teeth from the inside out so that even though the bacteria is still there, it cannot penetrate the enamel. The ones in the 'know how' say that bacteria is only a problem because the teeth are weakened by having too few minerals etc.. at their disposal to make them strong enough to resist attack. A completely different way to view tooth problems.
If you want to know more read this book.....very interesting!

Now dentists aside, our next problem has been the orthodontist. Both Sons have been seeing her for the last few years, waiting for the optimal point to have braces fitted. Since starting GAPS we have become more aware of the dangers of having metal in the body, especially the mouth with the associated toxic effects, which for a child already struggling with toxic overload could be quite a problem. So I did my research. I found that braces are mainly made of stainless steel, containing nickel. Research has shown that nickel in the mouths of youngsters can have quite a detrimental effect on their learning and behaviour. Source So we began to wonder if the so called wonder braces to make our smile dazzling were actually what we wanted. Plus the above book highlighted the dangers to future tooth health of dragging teeth through the gums into new positions. The end result is that both Sons have decided to have minimal treatment to correct their 'severe overcrowding' (basically canine teeth that will grow out of line). They will have teeth removed (eventually), but no braces. I could feel the orthodontists disapproval to their decision despite saying they had four options and they could choose, (it has to be their decision - I mustn't offer my opinion!) but they stuck to their guns. To be honest, neither wanted teeth out, plus months of having a wire contraption plus the associated problems of teeth cleaning. In their eyes, having the teeth out was sufficient. Neither care two hoots about their looks and have told the lady so. Her first question is always 'How do you feel about yourself when you look at your teeth in a mirror?' Son 2 prepared by Son 1's experience chirpily replied 'I never do!' It at least made them smile! And to be honest, at that point neither's teeth looked bad at all!
I hear of many children who have had braces fitted and their teeth move back out of position as they get older. Or others who refused treatment and as their jaw grew it wasn't necessary anyway. I think this is another area ruled by the 'pocket' and is probably quite a lucrative business. Its just not always easy to buck the trend! Obviously each case needs to be thought through carefully and what is right for us might not be for others. By seeing the orthodontist we were able to make an informed decision.

There seems to be an underlying assumption that all we should be concerned about is 'how we look' and that we should be prepared to do anything to make ourselves look attractive (and like everybody else), with little thought for whether it's actually good for us or not. I don't think Sons will regret their decision. After all Husband did the same years ago, and he looks fine.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. A member of the medical profession should be consulted about all matters relating to your health. This information is for advice only.

We get excited when we come up with a new snack, and this time, surprisingly, it's not chocolate! Yet it got 10/10 from all the family, so I thought I'd share it with you. Not too coconutty, in fact you can't taste it, but beautifully spongy!
We had to come off nuts for a while to see if one of us was reacting to them, and so I've been baking more with coconut flour. I don't like using too much of it as it's expensive. Neither do I like using 6 eggs - coconut flour recipes all seem to need lots of eggs. So I experimented, and came up with these. I hope yours turn out like mine and you like them as much as we do! I initially made them with our funny squash that we still haven't identified, but fortunately they work with courgette too!

1. Put the courgette into the food processor and blitz it - scrape down the sides as necessary until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add coconut flour and blitz again to combine.
3. Add melted butter and blitz until mixed in thoroughly.
4. Add honey and eggs and mix to combine.
5. Add bicarbonate of soda and grated lemon.
6. Put mixture into muffin cases.
7. Bake at 16o deg (fan oven) 180 deg, or Gas 4 for 25 minutes, until well risen and golden on top and firm to touch.

To make the icing, grate the lemon rind into a bowl, add the other other ingredients and mix until smooth.

To add to my four easy suppers, I have a few more recipes that have become staples in my menu calendar, especially now the cooler days are approaching. I love a casserole. Fortunately the family does too! I can put it in the oven after lunch and leave it there and instead of a mad dash to prepare tea and get it to the table on time. I only have to chop up some green vegetables and steam them and it's ready to serve. If I play it right and wash up after my lunchtime preparation, I even get a bit of evening sitting down, which is wonderful!

So here they are. With any of these recipes, we like roast butternut squash and carrots. Cut them up in chunks/slices and pop them in the oven in a roasting tin at the same time, dabbed with some GAPS legal, tolerated fat, (I use lard), and they should be beautifully cooked by the time the meat/fish is ready. Just turn them once or twice if you can, or at least once the fat has melted to baste them.

Chicken Casserole

A nice easy one, that can easily be adapted to suit your family's favourite ingredients.

Basically, put some raw chicken pieces - could be quarters, thighs, drumsticks, whatever you like, in the bottom of the casserole dish.
Add the diced vegetables of your choice - leeks/onions/mushrooms/ carrots/frozen peas/peppers.
Then pour over chicken stock - though I often just use plain water and with the chicken juices it turns out flavoursome. You need enough for the chicken to just have it's top poking above the surface to go nicely brown and crisp.
Season with your favourite seasonings - we use sage, reminiscent of stuffing!.
Pop it in the oven.
Now the temperature is up to you. It will need about 3 hours at 140 deg (fan oven), but if you want it sooner, then turn it up - 160, or even 180 and make sure it's well cooked before you serve - no pink bits showing in the meat and juices running clear.
Any left over broth can be cooled and stored in the fridge for another day.

Steak/beef Casserole

Once again, easy to adapt.

What I do:
Sautee an onion (and mushrooms) if desired.
Pop them into the casserole dish.
Then brown your meat - be it venison, or diced steak, or minced beef etc...
Add the beef stock - enough to cover the meat in the pan and a little more as it will evaporate (this isn't so nice with water), plus any vegetables (like carrots/swede) and seasonings. Bring to the boil.
Sometimes I add some tomato paste, or leftover Passat, but that's not necessary.
Pour the stock over the onions. Make sure the meat is covered and add a little boiling water if necessary.
Pop it in the oven.
This will need 2 1/2 to 3 hours at about 160 deg. (fan oven), Gas 4, to ensure the meat is tender.
I do check on it half way through and top up with boiling water to stop it cooking dry.
Make sure they all finish their nutritious broth and not leave it swilling round the plate!

Fish Casserole

Rather similar and just as easy.

Use either fresh fish or frozen. We like fresh trout, or frozen salmon.
Make a layer of veg at the bottom of the casserole dish - onion, leek, mushrooms, frozen peas.
Then add stock - I use chicken stock as we don't like fish stock unfortunately as I understand it's very good for you, or I use a tin of coconut milk (see below - lovely and creamy!). Again- use enough to cover the vegetables and season well - I add parsley and salt and pepper.

Then pop it in the oven - This does very quickly, so an hour on 160 deg. (fan), Gas 4, should do it. Check the vegetables are tender and the fish flaky before serving.
You could turn it down low and leave it for couple of hours if you needed to go out - say 130 deg.
You could sprinkle it with cheddar ten minutes before serving to make a cheesy topping.